System and Network

Administration

Dr.Moneeb Gohar
23/09/2020
 Managing (lots of) Desktops
● Three main sysadmin tasks for workstations
– Initial loading of system software and applications
– Updating system software and applications
– Configuring network parameters
● Need to get all three right
– Initial load must be consistent across machines
– Updates must be quick
– Network configuration best managed centrally
 Lots of desktops

Many photos by Mark

Miller (Lehigh LTS)
in 2003 and 2004.

You really don't want to install, configure, and

update lots of machines individually.
 Use your own installation
● Don't trust the vendor's pre-installed OS
– Adding apps to a truly clean installation can be
easier
– Their install image can change over time
– You'll need to re-install eventually
●
Making your re-installation a different configuration
●
You want to be certain that you have everything
(drivers, software, etc.) to re-install
– You may not want or need their special
applications and add-ons
 Updating system and apps
● Over time, people find
– New bugs
– New security holes
– New applications
● Updates can (and should) be automated, too
●
Example automation systems include
Linux package updaters like pup/yum and
apt
 Network Configuration
● Network config different from install
– Values vary by location, rather than OS+apps
● Typical solution is to use DHCP
– Eliminate time and manual error
●
By sysadmin or user (assigning himself an IP address
and/or hostname)
– More secure (only authorized systems get ac-
cess)
– Can assign a particular IP to an individual host
– Centralized control makes updates and changes
easier (e.g., new DNS server)
 Managing Servers
– Different from desktop? Yes!
●
May serve tens, hundreds or
many thousands of users
●
Requires reliability and high
uptime
● Requires tighter security
● Often expected to last
● longer
Extra cost is amortized across
users, life span
 Managing Servers (cont.)
– Servers typically have
●
Different OS configurations than desktops
● Deployment within
the data center
●
Maintenance contracts
●
Disk backup systems
●
Better remote access
 Server Hardware
– Buy server hardware for
servers
●
More internal space
●
More CPU performance
●
High performance I/O (both
disk and network)
●
More upgrade options
●
Rack mountable/optimized
– Use vendors known for
reliability
●
Your time is valuable
 Do servers really cost more?
● Typical vendor has three product lines
– Home
●
Absolute cheapest purchase price

Inspiron
● OEM components change often
– Business
●
Longer life, reduced TCO

Optiplex
● Fewer component changes
– Server
●
Lowest cost per performance metric

Precision
●
Easier to service components and design
Maintenance contracts, spare parts
● All machines eventually break!
● Vendors have variety of service contracts
– On-site with 4-hour, 12-hour, or next-day response
– Customer-purchased spare parts get replaced when used
● How to select maintenance contract? Determine needs.
– Non-critical hosts: next-day or two-day response time is likely
reasonable, or perhaps no contract
– Large groups of similar hosts: use spares approach
– Controlled model: only use a small set of distinct technologies so that
few spare part kits needed
– Critical host: stock failure-prone and interchangeable parts (power
supplies, hard drives); get same-day contract for remainder
– Large variety of models from same vendor: sufficiently large sites
may opt for a contract with an on-site technician
 Data Backups
●
Servers are often unique with critical data that
must be backed up
– Clients are often not backed up
(most data is on server)
– Consider separate administra-
tiveMight
● network
want to keep bandwidth-hungry backup jobs off of
production network
●
Provides alternate access during network problems
●
Requires additional NICs, cabling, switches
– (More details later in semester)
 Servers in the Data Center
– Servers should be located
in data centers
– Data centers provide
●
Proper power (enough
power, conditioned, UPS,
maybe generator)
●
Fire protection/suppres-
●
Networking
sion
●
Sufficient air conditioning
(climate controlled)
● Physical security

©2004-2016 Brian D. Davison

 Remote Administration
– Data centers are expensive, and thus often cramped,
cold, noisy, and may be distant from admin office
– Servers should not require physical presence at a
console
– Typical solution is a console server
●
Eliminate need for keyboard and screen
● Can see booting, can send special keystrokes
● Access to console server can be remote (e.g., ssh, rdesktop)
– Power cycling provided by remote-access power-strips
 Mirrored Root Disks
– Disk drives fail!
– Often useful to consider RAID for data integrity
– The main system disk is often the most difficult to replace
– Software RAID often comes with the OS for “free”;
hardware RAID is getting cheaper
– Two approaches for mirrored root disks:
●
Two disks; copy from the working disk to the
clone at regular intervals (e.g., once a
● night)

Use hardware or software RAID to keep

– RAID disks still
both in sync
need to be backed up
Why?
 Redundant Power Supplies
●
Power supplies 2nd most
failure-prone part
●
Ideally, servers should have
redundant power supplies
– Means the server will still operate if one power
supply fails
– Should have separate power cords
– Should draw power from different sources (e.g.,
separate UPSes)
Router with dual power supplies
● This is a Cisco 4506 switch that
serves as one of the backbone
switches for Lehigh's network.
●
Fiber (or copper if nearby)
travels from this switch to each router
on campus.

●
It has redundant power supplies, one
connected to a UPS and one con-
nected directly to commercial power.
 Hot-swap Components
● Redundant components should be hot-
swappable
– New components can be added without downtime
– Failed components can be replaced without
outage
● Hot-swap components increases cost
– But consider cost of downtime
●
Always check
– Does OS fully support hot-swapping components?
– What parts are not hot-swappable?
– How long/severe is the service interruption?
Alternatives to Expensive Servers
– Server appliances
●
Dedicated-purpose, already optimized
●
Examples: file servers, web servers,
email, DNS, routers, etc.
– Many inexpensive machines
●
Common approach for web services
– Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.
●
Use full redundancy to counter unreliability
●
Can be useful (but need to consider total
costs, e.g., support and maintenance, not
just purchase price)
 Managing Services
●
Services distinguish a structured computing environment from
a bunch of standalone computers
●
Larger groups are typically linked by shared services that ease
communication and optimize resources
● Typical environments have many services
– DNS, email, authentication, networking, printing
– Remote access, license servers, DHCP, software repositories, backup
services, Internet access, file service
● Providing a service means
– Not just putting together hardware and software
– Making service reliable
– Scaling the service
– Monitoring, maintaining, and supporting the service